Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 9

by Hiro Ainana

  With that, I looked up at the evening sky, catching a glimpse of a twinkling first star.

  “““Cheeeers!”””

  When I returned to the inn from my audience at the royal castle, some kind of party was underway.

  The person leading the toast appeared to be Mr. Rayleigh, the second son of Marquis Ashinen who I’d rescued when he was almost lost at sea.

  From the way he was tipping back his tankard, you’d never imagine that he had just been bedridden not long ago.

  On his cheek was a cartoonlike bright-red handprint.

  He’d probably tried something with one of the waitresses and gotten a well-deserved slap in the face.

  My companions weren’t at the feast; my map indicated they were in one of our rooms on the upper floor of the inn, so I went up the stairs without stopping at the party, since Rei needed rest anyway.

  “I’m back.”

  “Welcooome!”

  “Sir!”

  When I opened the door, Tama and Pochi came flying at me.

  Looking around the room, I noticed there seemed to be a strange, heavy mood in the air.

  Clearly, Tama and Pochi were relieved to have a break from it.

  “Master! You won’t believe this!”

  “Mrrr. Death to noblemen.”

  Arisa and Mia, the iron-wall duo, stormed up to me indignantly.

  “Could you calm down first, please? You’re scaring Tama and Pochi.”

  At that, the two of them calmed down a little.

  “Ah… I’m sorry.”

  “Apology.”

  Once they’d cooled off, they explained that the drunken Mr. Rayleigh—no, let’s call him “that bastard”—had put his arms around Nana and forcibly grabbed her breasts.

  “U-um, master?”

  “What is it?”

  As I was getting ready to go deal out some divine punishment, Arisa held me back.

  “You’re making a really scary face…”

  Glancing around, I saw that Tama’s ears were flattened back, and Pochi was teary-eyed with her tail between her legs.

  Oh geez. I guess I had no right to scold Arisa earlier.

  I took a deep breath to calm myself.

  “Don’t worry. He already got what he deserved.”

  The other girls backed Arisa up.

  “Kaslaaap?”

  “Nana smacked him right in the face, sir!”

  “It was a very good, firm strike.”

  “I think she should have hit his other cheek, too.”

  Lulu chimed in after the beastfolk girls. It was uncharacteristic for her, but I couldn’t blame her for hating a sexually harassing bastard.

  “My chest belongs to master alone, I declare.”

  That was a great declaration, Nana, but I wish you wouldn’t say things that’ll cause serious misunderstandings like that.

  Arisa’s and Mia’s iron-wall rage aside, it pained my heart to see Lulu’s sad expression.

  Still, even if Nana had already gotten her revenge, I couldn’t just let the bastard off the hook.

  You’ve got to nip creeps like that in the bud.

  “Sir Knight, over here!”

  A boy we’d rescued from a pirate hideout called to me.

  “Oh-ho, so this is Sir Pendragon? Come, I owe you my life, good sir!”

  The creepy bastard waved me over to his side.

  “I say, it’s thanks to you that I didn’t drown at sea! I cannot thank you enough, sir. My father is pretty famous even in the Shiga Kingdom, so I’m sure he can make you an honorary baronet at the very least!”

  The drunken bastard chattered away cheerfully.

  “You know, I woke up to find myself in the water, surrounded by the ruins of my ship. I didn’t think I was going to make it!”

  I opened my mouth to voice my grievances when he paused, but he kept talking before I could get a word in.

  “Oh yes, I owe you an apology. I was trying to court a beautiful woman earlier, but I had no idea that she was your wife. Please forgive me for my rudeness.”

  Having him apologize before I could speak made it hard to give him the talking-to I’d planned.

  Especially when he then pointed at his cheek and added, “She gave me a very painful slap, too!”

  Since this man was a noble, he could easily get Nana in serious trouble for hurting him.

  “Might I make it up to you with more than words once I’ve returned to the Shiga Kingdom? I’m afraid I have little on hand at the moment.”

  Still, I had to get in at least one jab.

  “If you can promise me that you’ll never lay a hand on Nana or my other companions again, you need not make it up to me in any other way.”

  “I see. Then I shall swear on the name of Marquis Ashinen and the ancestral king Yamato. I, Rayleigh Ashinen, shall never again commit any act that might harm you and yours, Sir Pendragon.”

  The creepy bastard—also known as “Rayleigh”—put his hand to his heart with a humble expression.

  In the new-nobility classes I’d taken in the Muno Barony, I was told that swearing on one’s family name and the ancestral king was the most trustworthy pledge of all, so it was probably safe to believe him.

  Since he seemed to regret his actions, I decided to put the matter to rest.

  Although, if he ever did anything like that again, I’d have him living out the rest of his life all alone on an uninhabited island.

  For now, I asked him what had happened to his ship when we found him.

  “Well, I was looking out at the foggy seas from the deck when I suddenly lost consciousness and was thrown into the water. So I have no idea how the ship sank.”

  Most likely, a large amount of miasma knocked him out, and falling into the water was the only thing that kept him alive.

  Rayleigh was a mere level 12, and his only skills were “Etiquette,” “Negotiation,” and “Analyze Goods,” so he certainly wasn’t suited to combat.

  He must be a lucky man, since he wasn’t attacked by monsters while he was adrift.

  Prompted by the man next to him, Rayleigh asked me a question.

  “By the way, Sir Pendragon, I heard you went to the royal castle. Were you seeking a Liquor Baron title?”

  “No, I did not receive the title of Liquor Baron. I was simply escorting an important person from Ishrallie to the castle.”

  The title I received was Liquor Marquis, not Liquor Baron.

  Upon hearing my response, Rayleigh and the man next to him sagged with obvious disappointment.

  “I see… Since you had an elf with you, I thought you might present the king with the legendary fairy wine and receive the title of Liquor Baron…”

  “Is there something special about the Liquor Baron title?”

  I wasn’t quite sure why he was so concerned with me getting that title.

  “What do you mean? With the Liquor Baron title, you can get that horrible tax reduced to only twenty percent! Then you could bring Shiga Kingdom silk into Ishrallie and acquire their Heaven’s Teardrops to sell in Shiga to your heart’s content!”

  Right, I guess I heard in Ishrallie that there was a high tax on silk.

  “I had hoped that I could borrow a ship from you and perhaps lead some folks with nowhere else to go on a trade route, but that would be quite difficult without the Liquor Baron title.”

  “A ship?”

  “Yes, you have a big ship called the SS Cloud or something, right? Some people from the Gabato Trading Company came to start a fuss, but I chased them off.”

  Oh, right. The drifting ship I used to transport those pirates.

  Evidently, ownership of it now belonged to me, but if its original owners, the Gabato Trading Company, had come in good faith to negotiate, I had planned to give it back to them.

  According to Rayleigh, though, they’d sent a bunch of ruffians to take it back by force.

  “Boy, those little ladies are strong. I hear they dispatched a bunch of pirates with ease, too,
didn’t they?”

  Rayleigh was the one who’d cajoled the leader from the Gabato Trading Company into backing off, but my companions were the ones who’d fought back the ruffians.

  The ruffians and the men from the trading company had been taken away by guards called by the inn.

  “My Liquor Knight title allows me to trade, but it doesn’t really change the taxes. Not a very fair reward for bringing him my prized Kingsblossom and White Mountain, don’t you agree?”

  “That’s to be expected, I’m afraid,” the man next to Rayleigh said. “The king of Lalagi isn’t very fond of dry Shigan sake.”

  So the brands the king had mentioned were the ones that Rayleigh had brought him.

  “I know it’s impudent of me to ask this of the knight who saved our lives, but would you by chance be interested in investing in our new company?” the other man asked me.

  I didn’t want to leave these people with nowhere to turn after I’d rescued them from pirates, and it’d be on my conscience if they turned into pirates or criminals themselves; besides, there was far more money in my Storage than I could possibly use.

  It might not be a bad idea to offer them a little contribution.

  “Then, would I be able to see your business plan outline?”

  “…Business plan outline?”

  “Of course. A document describing what path you intend to take, what products you will handle and in what quantity, as well as your estimated costs and projected profits.”

  Naturally, I wouldn’t want it to turn into a bad debt, so it was best if they came up with some estimates.

  Making a snap decision here would be a rookie mistake.

  “V-very well. I’ll find out the SS Cloud’s speed and loading capacity and draw up some plans.”

  “I’m looking forward to it.”

  At first the man seemed flummoxed, but soon his eyes were filled with promising determination.

  Rayleigh didn’t seem too interested in dealing with the details, instead clapping the man on the back and saying, “I’m counting on you!” So he was dumping all the work on his subordinate.

  Depending on his business plan, I was willing to give him more trade ships as well as money, and maybe offer them a bottle of fairy wine so that one of them could become a liquor baron.

  “Whew, I really worked up a sweat.”

  “Nice job, Arisa.”

  I wiped the sweat from Arisa’s gleaming forehead with a handkerchief.

  She’d been busy selling glasswork in the trading square.

  “They sold at a great price thanks to you.”

  “Hee-hee, I have to remind you of my amazingness once in a while.”

  Arisa grinned proudly as I tugged her back toward the others.

  Since it had seemed like we might be here for a while, and Lalagi was sweltering hot, I’d had everyone else cool off under the shade of a nearby tree.

  “That’s a lot of people over there.”

  “Yes, they’re all trying to get ice.”

  A crowd was gathered around an ice pillar that I’d set out to help everyone cool off.

  Many of them were young boys and girls in the same outfit, which, according to my AR, was the uniform of Lalagi Magic School.

  I guess they do call this place the Kingdom of Sorcery.

  Maybe I could take Arisa and Mia to visit the magic school and public library during our stay.

  “I bet a shaved-ice stand would make a killing here.”

  “No kidding.”

  Nodding, I checked that everyone else was ready.

  “Shall we go?” I prompted, and we all started to leave.

  “Wait a minute, sir!” called one of the people gathered around the ice. “What about your ice pillar?”

  “That’s all right. You can use it to keep cool.”

  This provoked an excited shout from the crowd so loud that I thought it might shake the leaves off the trees. It is hot, after all.

  “Sweet ’n’ yummyyy?”

  “Nougat is so sweet and strong, sir.”

  “Mm. Tasty.”

  “It’s…very good.”

  The younger kids were eating some molasses candies, a by-product from our trip to the sugar purification factory.

  It had been a long time since I had something so sweet that it almost hurt my teeth.

  “I think you’re supposed to dip this pastry in it, not eat it with your fingers.”

  Just as Lulu said, the nutty pastry seemed to be intended for dipping into the syrup-like candy.

  “Delicious.”

  “Master, my sweetness detectors are experiencing an anomaly. Requesting regulation, I entreat.”

  Liza gave a normal reaction, but Nana came over to me with her lips trembling.

  The sweetness was probably a little too aggressive for her.

  In addition to the usual brown sugar and molasses, the sugar factory also sold rock candy and pure, high-grade white sugar.

  The former was widely available, but the latter was expensive and produced in small quantities, so most of it was consumed only by local nobles.

  “If you wish, Liquor Marquis Pendragon, we could gladly arrange for some rock candy and high-grade sugar for you.”

  “I would appreciate that. We’re renting a storehouse in the harbor, so please have it delivered there.”

  The owner of the sugar factory knew about my title for some reason, so I was happy to take him up on his proposal. I also bought many barrels’ worth of brown sugar and molasses, since they were so affordable here.

  “N-now, Sir Liquor Marquis, there is one thing I’d like to ask…”

  The owner gave me an unexpected request.

  “You want me to tell you what the legendary liquor tastes like, but you’re not asking to try it yourself?”

  I had imagined that it would be about the fairy wine, but his question was humbler than I’d imagined.

  “Yes, I thought that as a liquor marquis, you are likely to have tasted it.”

  “Well, they say the proof is in the pudding. Why don’t I have you try a sip?”

  Touched by the owner’s modesty, I decided to offer him a small vial of the fairy wine.

  “Surely you don’t mean…!”

  “Just don’t tell anyone else, all right?”

  The owner closed his eyes and breathed in the fragrance from the top of the vial for a few moments before bringing it to his lips with shaking hands, pouring a few drops of the fairy wine into his mouth.

  It was clear from his ecstatic expression that he truly loved liquor.

  Just as promised, he stopped after only one sip, capped the vial, and held it out to me.

  “What a magnificent wine. Truly, my meager vocabulary could not even begin to describe its complexity.”

  His body trembled with emotion.

  I gently pushed the vial back toward him with my palm.

  “Please keep it. I’m giving that to you.”

  “A-are you certain?”

  “Very. The brownies who gave this to me would surely be pleased for someone who loves liquor as much as you to drink it.”

  At that, tears of joy filled the owner’s eyes.

  I feel kinda bad that he’s this excited over a vial that only has a few sips of wine left in it.

  The man continued to thank me as we waved and left the sugar factory.

  The next day, the molasses I’d ordered was delivered to the warehouse, along with some barrels of rum, beef jerky, and so on.

  The owner must have thrown these gifts in from his farms and wine cellar.

  Lalagi beef, which was raised on a diet of leftover sugarcane dregs, was said to be extremely delicious.

  He also had some beef delivered to our inn, so we ended up having a steak-and-hamburger party that night.

  I was surprised by the Lalagi-style steaks, which were prepared with a sugar-based dry rub, but they were so soft and tasty when eaten with the accompanying sweet sauce that I was ordering seconds before I knew it.


  As thanks to the modest and dutiful owner, I decided to send him a letter along with vials of Leprechaun Claret and Spriggan Treasure.

  “So this is the Box?”

  “That’s right. You are free to take a closer look, too, little girl.”

  Two days after our visit to the sugar factory, we were in the chapel-esque inner sanctum of the Lalagi royal castle to see the Box, also known as the Lalakie Box.

  My AR display labeled it Lalakie Maintenance Terminal for Senior Personnel Use.

  I’d assumed it was going to be some kind of treasure box, but evidently I was wrong.

  Maybe the Skeleton King was after a different box, then.

  “A white…box.”

  The Box didn’t seem to be triggering any memories for Rei, since she didn’t go into her usual trance state.

  The king of Lalagi didn’t look thrilled about Rei’s indifference.

  “Sir Pendragon, try giving it some magic power.”

  “Are you certain?”

  “Go on. It will only make the surface glow.”

  I nodded and put a tiny amount of magic into the Box, not even one full MP.

  “”

  The voice from the Box startled me, but I wasn’t the only one.

  “Wh-what is this voice? What does it mean by senior personnel?!”

  “I—I don’t know.”

  The king and the crown prince exclaimed in surprise, and there were murmurs from the other nobles as well.

  “”

  The voice put Rei into a trance state, and she started to state a number, but I stopped her in the nick of time.

  This Box was probably just an ordinary maintenance tool, but if Rei was able to activate it when the royal family couldn’t, there was no telling what they might do.

  Hastily, I drew the magic power back out of the Box, shutting it down in the middle of repeating its statement.

  “Whew, that was close. Your Highness, this Box seems to have a mechanism that rejects anyone but royalty. The security system might have activated and destroyed your treasure.”

  “What do you mean, ‘security’?”